


After the Final Curtain Falls

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Confessions, Debt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Memories, Minor Character Death, Past Violence, Repaying Debt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 14:24:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13503405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: News of Damien Moreau's death brings up old demons for Eliot.  When the hitter travels to Greece to visit the grave of the former crime-boss, Parker sends Nate after him to make sure he's okay - and that he intends to return home.





	After the Final Curtain Falls

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Valawenel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valawenel/gifts).



> I've said it before and I'll say it again - maybe some day I'll stop writing about the tangled, multi-layered nature of Nate and Eliot's relationship.
> 
> Today is not that day.
> 
> Once again Val, thank you for playing with us - it is always a pleasure to have you.
> 
> Reminder that Damien Moreau's family - his wife and children - are the creation of Scoutlover. If you're going to steal, steal from the absolute best!

The breeze off the Mediterranean was warm, but Eliot shivered nonetheless; the skin on the back of his neck prickling in warning that someone was coming up behind him. “Parker call you?”

“She knew you wouldn’t.” A moment later, Nate was at his side, looking down at the gravestone occupying Eliot’s attention. “A knife to the kidneys?”

Eliot couldn’t suppress a sympathetic wince. It was an ugly, protracted way to die – not at all what Damien Moreau had ever envisioned for himself. “President Vittori was full of apologies – poor guy doesn’t realize that nothing he could have done would have stopped this.”

The two men stepped away from the grave, walking together to a nearby bench. “Why Greece?” Nate asked, as they took their seats. “I thought Moreau was Serbian?”

“Croatian,” Eliot corrected him. “Damien’s _wife_ , however, is Greek.” He gestured around them. “We’re actually on the villa property, and no – I don’t have permission to be here.” He sighed, feeling the pressure of long-buried emotions trying to fight their way to the surface again. “Vittori probably turned the body over once any investigation was complete.”

“He couldn’t bury him in San Lorenzo,” Nate acknowledged. “Not in any kind of identifiable grave. Sending him back to his family puts him out of play and keeps him from becoming some kind of martyr.”

Eliot snorted softly, remembering Juliana Moreau. “No, martyr was Juliana’s stock in trade. My European contacts tell me she’s been working the aggrieved wife angle ever since Damien went into the Tombs.”

Silence fell between the two men. Eliot didn’t realize how far down the rabbit hole of his thoughts he’d slipped, until he heard Nate say, “You’re allowed to grieve the good times, Eliot. I know you had them.”

Permission given, the last trembling bits of Eliot’s control finally shredded. “It’s not…” he managed to get out, before his body began to shake with silent, wracking sobs.  
***********************************  
_This is why Parker called you._ Reaching out, Nate rested a hand on Eliot’s back – reminding him in the most basic and honest way he could that what he was feeling was all right…that whatever happened, he wasn’t alone.

 _”It feels different,”_ Parker had told him. _”Not like the other times he’s told us to leave him alone. I think he needs you, Nate. Just you.”_

Hearing that, he hadn’t hesitated. His bond with Eliot had always been different than the connection he shared with the others – even before he fully understood what was going on, Nate had sensed he was being maneuvered into a role Eliot needed him to play. It was ironic in the extreme that he could trace his acceptance of that role back to the beginning of their quest to bring down the man who had inadvertently set it all in motion.

He looked across the stretch of flawlessly manicured lawn that separated them from that same man’s grave now. Since discovering the truth of Eliot’s connection to Moreau, Nate had spent a lot of time thinking about the man and what his relationship with Eliot must have been like. The fact that Eliot had killed for Moreau came as no surprise; Sophie had already told him, with Jonah Quinn’s reluctant confirmation, how close Eliot had come to executing Victor Dubenich himself in order to save Nate from having to do it.

 _How could you use him like that?_ But there was no real weight of emotion behind the thought. Moreau’s relationship with Eliot was more complicated than people would catch at first glance, and no one living knew better than Nate how difficult it could be to handle that level of dedication from someone.

He felt Eliot draw a deep, shuddering breath, then straighten. Focusing in on his hitter again, Nate saw Eliot dash the last of his grief from his eyes with the back of one still-shaking hand. “Sorry,” he said gruffly, suddenly unable to meet Nate’s eyes. “Wasn’t expecting that.”

Nate thought for a moment about challenging him on that but decided against it. _Not the time._ After a long moment’s contemplation, he gently bumped shoulders with Eliot. “Tell me your favorite memory. Something nobody would believe about the man.”

He glanced at the younger man and wasn’t surprised to see Eliot staring at him like he’d lost his mind.  
*************************************  
_A favorite memory?_ But the longer he rolled the question around in his mind, the more images crowded into Eliot’s mind, demanding to be given voice.

“It wasn’t all blood and death,” Nate told him, his expression suddenly serious. “Despite what you like to think about yourself, you wouldn’t have stayed as long as you did if it was. So, share. Tell me about his teddy bear collection, or his addiction to reality television. Anything.”

The idea of Damien Moreau being addicted to “The Bachelor” or “Survivor” was ridiculous enough to make Eliot laugh out loud, but Nate’s comment about teddy bears did spark a memory. “Most people didn’t realize that Damien was devoted to his children. The boys were already on the scene when I came to work for him, but I remember the day his daughter was born. I don’t think I ever saw him that stupidly happy, not before or since.”

_Eliot’s relationship with Damien’s wife could best be described as ‘volatile’. They’d agreed months earlier that once she went into labor, and her husband was expected at her bedside, that Eliot’s second in command would be responsible for security at the hospital. Eliot would remain with their two sons, not only as protector, but as the one person in the household capable of keeping them distracted.”_

“Jules was thirteen, and already trying to act like the heir to the throne. His brother was a few years younger. Brilliant mind.” He paused, remembering the face that had dogged his steps when he was home at the same time as the children. “Not like you or Hardison smart, but he was a natural strategic thinker.”

_Jules had been playing a video game on a hand-held console that Eliot knew Damien had paid a small fortune to obtain. Alexander and Eliot were seated on the floor of the boys’ room – Eliot was quizzing Alex on the details of the battle at Dunkirk in World War II._

“I remember I was thinking about the fight I was going to have trying to get the boys to bed if we didn’t hear anything,” Eliot told Nate. “Lucky for me, Damien made it a non-issue.”

_The man had been positively giddy – his dark eyes shining as he burst into the room and announced, “A girl! You have a sister, boys!” He’d swept Alexander into his arms – spinning the laughing boy a full circle before perching on a nearby stool and settling his son on his knee. “Her name is Adjriana Linnea. She is strong and beautiful, and you will love her like I do!”_

“He looked at me then, and all I saw was my friend.” Eliot shuddered, amazed at how difficult it had been for him to say the words. “I don’t know if this makes sense, but he was inviting me to share his happiness – maybe more than the boys, because he thought I could appreciate it more?”

“He made you part of the family,” Nate said, nodding. “You talk about him giving you something that was missing from your life, but I think maybe you filled a hole in his life too.”  
******************************  
_There but for the grace of God…_ Nate had often wondered what their lives would have been like, if he’d given in to the temptation to use Eliot the way Moreau had. It was terrifying to consider – he wanted to think he would have been smart enough not to push Eliot as far as the weapons dealer had in the end, but that kind of power and unwavering loyalty…

“Have I thanked you lately for all the times you’ve called me on my bullshit?” he asked abruptly.

He startled a laugh out of the hitter. “You know, that first time I really expected you to order me to fall in line,” Eliot admitted.

Nate tried to imagine hearing that, as drunk and full of himself as he’d been, and couldn’t wrap his brain around it. “What would you have said if I’d tried?” he asked, incredulous.

Eliot’s grin abruptly faded. “Company.” Remembering what he’d said about not having permission to be here, Nate turned to follow his gaze and saw a tall, dark-haired woman striding towards them – flanked by two men in uniform with holstered side-arms.

They got to their feet. Eliot started to move in front of him, but Nate held him in place. “That’s not necessary, Mrs. Moreau,” he called, addressing himself to Damien’s widow. “We’re leaving.”

They were close enough to see that Juliana Moreau was still a strikingly handsome woman – but far enough that Nate couldn’t hear precisely what she said to the closest of her guards.

The specifics didn’t matter a moment later when both guards drew their weapons and separated - far enough apart that neither he nor Eliot would be leaving any time soon. “We’re not here to cause any trouble,” Nate said, stepping deliberately in front of Eliot and raising his hands.

“The men responsible for my husband’s death come to my home,” she countered, “and you expect me to believe you’re not here to cause trouble? I think you came here planning to hurt my children,” she added. “And my loyal guards dispatched you.”

Nate heard Eliot swear under his breath. “She’ll do it, Nate. Don’t think for a second she won’t.”  
***********************  
He’d imagined how he would finally go out – everyone in his position had. Eliot would have laughed at the absurdity of it all, if the danger hadn’t suddenly been so real. Grabbing Nate by the arm, he drew the mastermind’s attention. “Let me handle this,” he said, fixing the determined gaze with his own.

“One word about sacrificing yourself,” Nate warned. “Just one…”

“Not a peep,” Eliot assured him. Despite what Nate might think – what any of them might think – he wasn’t ready to die today.

Of course, that desire was currently at odds with what Damien’s widow wanted for him. “How long before you turn on this one?” Juliana sneered, as he turned to face her. “How dare you bring your new master here? Bad enough your hand is the one to bring him low – do you have to disgrace his memory by coming here?”

This was how all her fights with Damien had started – Eliot had witnessed the dance more times than he would ever be able to remember. “There is no audience here, Juliana,” he reminded her. “No audience, and no disgrace intended.”

“The fact that you live is a disgrace,” she spat.

Eliot was forced to swallow his first response, and it hurt going back down. Drawing on Nate’s presence to steady himself, he said instead, “The fact that I live was your husband’s _choice._ The fact that Damien lived as long as he did was the choice of many people better than you or I will ever be – including this man standing behind me.”

“Mrs. Moreau,” Nate began. Eliot tensed, but before he could figure out where Nate was going, the mastermind said, “Nothing is going to be gained through violence here. Let us walk away and you will never see either one of us again. You have my word.”

It suddenly occurred to Eliot that he had promised not to sacrifice himself for Nate, but he had no such promise in reverse.  
***************************************  
_”I’m just going to make sure he’s okay – that he’s not getting ready to do something stupid.”_

Sophie was never going to let him hear the end of this one. “Everyone tells me you are a thief,” Juliana Moreau said. “I would be an idiot to take you at your word.”

Of course she’d had him investigated. “Careful,” Eliot muttered, as Nate mentally re-set his view of the woman who – against all odds – now held his and Eliot’s life in her hands.

“That’s fair,” he allowed. “I am a thief. And a very lucky man – I hold no illusions about my power or my place in the world.” He spread his hands. “To tell the truth, if I hadn’t been blackmailed myself with the lives of my crew, I never would have for one second come against your husband.”

“Not even to settle _his_ score with me and mine?” Juliana asked, gesturing angrily at Eliot.

Before Nate could tell her that he hadn’t even known about Eliot’s connection to Damien Moreau, his hitter stepped forward again. “There was no score, Juliana.” Which wasn’t precisely true, Nate realized, remembering an airport hangar and trying to hold back an enraged Eliot by sheer force of will, but if Eliot didn’t see the need to bring up the fact that Damien had tried very hard to kill him…

“Damien gave me my life after Belgrade,” Eliot went on. “He didn’t have to. I know what happened. I know what I did. I was ready to take the shot myself, just to spare him the need to give the order.”

Nate would have thought he’d heard everything Eliot had to say on the subject of his relationship with Damien Moreau by now, but apparently there was more. _”The worst thing I ever did in my life, I did for Damien Moreau. And I’ll never be clean of that.”_

“You should have died!” They were still far enough apart that Nate couldn’t see the tears on Juliana’s cheeks, but he could hear the genuine grief in her voice.

“Nobody’s who was there will argue with you!” Eliot countered, and it was difficult now to tell which of them was in greater agony from opening such old, deep wounds. “I don’t know why he wanted me to live – neither of us will ever know now. But I owe him for that gift, more than you will ever understand. He put me on a different path that night. Probably not the one he expected, but it led me to a better place, and teachers who showed me I was more than just a weapon.”

Nate’s eyes blurred briefly as Eliot glanced at him. He had never felt less worthy of Eliot’s loyalty or his faith than he did in that moment – finally understanding how deep it ran and why. _It’s not about you though, is it?_

“Short of blood,” he said finally, “what will it take for peace between us?”  
***************************************  
“I’m going to pay you back.” They were finally in sight of the docks, and the boat Nate had chartered to bring him out to the island.

He wasn’t surprised when Nate snorted softly and shook his head. “You will not.” But hearing the dollar amount Juliana had named for a settlement and seeing how Nate hadn’t hesitated to make the transfer had left Eliot feeling decidedly off-balance. Reaching out a hand, he grabbed Nate by the arm and dragged the mastermind to a stop.

“Nate, that is an ungodly amount of money,” he said, as soon as he had the older man’s full attention. “It wasn’t your debt to settle.”

“It wasn’t?” Nate countered, raising an eyebrow. “Eliot, by your own admission you never would have crossed paths with Moreau again if it hadn’t been for the Italian and the deal I was forced to make. I may never fully appreciate what you saw in me worth following, but I do know that I would pay three times this much if it allows the man you are to finally put what happened behind you.”

It was his turn to reach out then, gripping Eliot by the shoulder. “You can pay me back by leaving the bad stuff in the past once and for all. Carry forward only those memories that bring you happiness, and I will be repaid in full.”


End file.
